Vicki Lawrence, star of The Carol Burnett Show and Mama’s Family, returns to TV in the Fox comedy series The Cool Kids, airing Fridays. Lawrence, 69, plays Margaret, who joins a group of men (Martin Mull, David Alan Grier and Leslie Jordan) livin’ it up at a retirement community.

Were you one of the cool kids in high school?

I don’t think so. I was big in the music department, but I don’t think that qualified as a cool kid. I was also a cheerleader, but I certainly didn’t feel very cool.

What is Margaret’s story?

She’s been around the block a few times and doesn’t take sass off any guy. I think she’s a troublemaker, but with a twinkle in her eye.

Can this be compared to Golden Girls, another group of TV retirees having fun?

Maybe an updated Golden Girls. The guys get upset with me if I say that because they say it’s not. I hope we’ll be edgier and a little crazier than Golden Girls.

We’ve got an executive producer—Charlie Day—from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I didn’t know him when I auditioned, so I’ve been binge-watching Charlie Day and he is just ridiculously funny—stupid, silly funny—and I hope he will keep The Cool Kids that way: Keep us getting into all kinds of trouble that we shouldn’t, because we’re silly and we’re crazy.

How do you feel about old-people jokes? Or maybe the jokes will be jokes that work for any age?

Hopefully, yeah. Although we’ve been noticing in the promos that everybody seems to think Pepto-Bismol is definitely an old thing. The other day, we did a photo shoot and the cocktails were called Peptoccinis. We’ll see. It’s OK if it’s funny. Funny is funny.

I’m hopeful that this is going to be like high school but in your ’70s. A lot of things I find don’t ever really change, like who’s the coolest, who’s the prettiest, who’s the sassiest, who’s in charge.

I didn’t know any of these guys, but they’re all so talented. There are no divas on the set. It’s like Leslie said a few weeks ago, “We’ve all been around the block so many times, we’re dizzy.” And I was talking to Martin one night and he said, “I feel like I’ve had this lovely career. It’s been great, and when this happens when you’re my age, it’s just like the cherry on top.” I said, “I know. It’s just so nice. It’s such a gift.” We’re all so grateful for the gift that we’re all out there to have a good time.

Is there anyone on the writing staff old enough to remember the things that you four characters are going to have to know?

We, the cast, talked about this a little bit. We said, “They’re going to be writing from a perspective of stuff they’ve seen, like The Golden Girls, but not from personal experience. I said “Maybe their parents, maybe grandparents.” They said, “Yeah, but no personal experience.” The writers actually suggested, “Let’s get together. We want to pick your brain because you guys are the ones that are going through it.” So we’re going to get together and have a little dinner.

Do you feel like the time is right for the show, that there’s something in the culture that makes this the perfect timing?

Definitely. It’s all over the news. The boomers are the biggest portion of the population right now. We outnumber the young population by quite a bit. You know how they do the ads and they say you’re not in the target demo? Well, we’re the ones with some money.

Right. And the ones that watch TV on a TV.

Yes. We’re the ones that sit at home and watch TV. They say they’re not targeting an older audience because old people don’t change their minds. I try new stuff all the time. I think that’s wrong.

I think more and more, you’re seeing the entertainment industry targeting that audience with some pretty funny stuff. Like Last Vegas and The Bucket List, they’re doing movies now with older casts. The old people are cute and funny.

On the other hand, it’s always a good time for just funny. I feel like a lot of sitcoms have gotten more like dramedies; not just silly for silly’s sake. People say to me that they watch Mama’s Family all the time because it’s just silly. You get to laugh for no good reason and, consequently, it’s a lot of people’s guilty pleasure. Probably that’s exactly what this will be; just silly for silly’s sake, not too message-y.

In addition, you have a one-woman show that actually is called A Two-Woman Show.

I thought that was a really clever title. I laughed out loud when we came up with that. Isn’t that cute, A Two-Woman Show?

How was the idea born?

A little group of people that I really trust put the show together on the heels of the first Carol Burnett reunion, which was huge. That aired shortly after 9/11 and it was pretty clear that America wanted to reminisce and they wanted to be comforted. The appetite for Burnett was voracious.

Harvey [Korman] and Tim [Conway] had been on the road doing a show together and had a lot of success. I remember Harvey saying, “I’ve been saying this to you for years. You need to go out. You need to put a show together and get out there. You can do whatever you want. Nobody can tell you what to do. If you don’t feel like doing something one night, you don’t have to do it.” He said, “It’s yours and you’re in charge, and I really think you’d have a blast doing it. I think it would be a success.”

I knew when I put it together that Mama had to be a big part of it because everybody loves her. I often feel like if I’d fall off the face of the earth and as long as Mama’s around, nobody would miss me. People ask me where she is all the time like she’s supposed to be with me.

I know how much people love her, like she’s a real person, so I knew she had to be a big part of the show. I said to my writing partner and everybody that was helping me, “I need to be me before I’m not anymore,” if you know what I mean.

My half of the show is largely autobiographical. It’s all the things that people would ask me if we were to do questions and answers like Carol did, like how I met Carol, how I became a natural redhead, how in the hell did I have one huge hit record, how did Mama happen, how did I meet my husband—it’s just all the fun stuff that’s happened to me. I find that people love hearing all the old stories.

I was surprised to learn that Mama was originally supposed to be Carol, not you.

Right. They wrote it for her, lovingly wrote it for her. There were two writers. They both came from dysfunctional families, so they wrote this beautiful homage to their dysfunctional upbringings. Carol said, “I don’t feel it. I’m feeling Eunice.” They were very upset, and when she said, “I think Vicki should play Mama,” they were doubly upset.

Then Carol said, “I think we should do this Southern, because it is just nothing if not Tennessee Williams on acid.” We did it Southern and the first time they saw it in the run-through, the writers literally threw down their pads and pencils and stormed out. They said, “You’ve ruined it.” And Carol said, “It’s the way I want to do it. It’s the way it’s going to go on the air.” Obviously, it got such great feedback, they ended up having to write new material over and over again.

The fun thing about playing Mama is she can say whatever she likes and gets away with it.

I’ve always said she reminds me of Archie Bunker, who said whatever was on his mind. We all know an Archie Bunker. We all have one in our lives, so it’s fun that we can bond over it. I said, “Everybody’s got a Mama that sits at the Thanksgiving table and says something just horrific and you laugh about it while you’re doing the dishes.”

Did any of Mama rub off in your real life?

I have to say I think I agree with Mama a little more as I get older.

You had an unusual beginning to your career. You started at the top with Carol.

I was 18 when I started on the Burnett Show. I went through UCLA, I went through a bad first marriage, I found [second husband] Al [Schultz] and I had both my kids on that show. Most people would agree that 20 to 30 is a huge growing period. I was 18 to 29 on that show.

What was it like for you when The Carol Burnett Show ended?

Actually, when it was over, Al and I sold literally everything but the kids and moved to Hawaii because I thought I wanted to be Mom. I thought I might want to open a little boutique, because I love clothes and I love shopping. I said, “Wouldn’t that be fun?” Al thought maybe he would love to open a restaurant.

We were crazy. We were dreamers and we were crazy. We literally up and went to Hawaii and lived there for a year. It was at a time when the economy was a little sketchy, so thankfully for us, we did not ever open a business, and I really found that I wasn’t happy being just Mom. I felt like I needed to be me in there somewhere, not just Mom.

So we were there literally a year. We got off the plane and I cooked Thanksgiving dinner in Hawaii for the whole family. Everybody came over to help unpack and I got to cook Thanksgiving dinner. And then we moved home and I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for that same bunch of ingrates. I tell you it was almost exactly a year.

Al turned over in bed one night in Hawaii and said, “Are you happy here?” I started crying, “No, I want to go home.” I’m an L.A. girl. Hawaii is like living in a very, very small town. If you want the best museum, you want to go over to Honolulu. If you want to go to the best orthodontist, you’re definitely going to Honolulu. If you want the best school, you’re going to the other side of the island. It’s a little bit tricky living in Hawaii.

I came back with a whole new appreciation for the freeway and the fact that if you want to go see the ballet tonight, you can.There’s a lot of stuff in L.A. at your fingertips that you maybe don’t appreciate until you lose it.

You’re starting a brand-new job that could, if you’re lucky, go seven years, maybe more. Do you ever think about retiring?

I don’t, because I love what I do. Al’s friends will say to him all the time, “When are you going to let Vicki retire?” He always says, “They just don’t realize that this is your golf. This is what you love.” It is. It’s such a nice gift to be able to make people laugh. Showbiz is so much fun. I feel like I learned from Carol exactly what it should be. You get paid for playing dress-up and hanging out with a lot of fun people. If you’re doing it right, that’s the way it is and there’s nothing more fun in the world. It beats the hell out of working.

AMG/Parade Digital

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